


Won't Let Her Get Away

by OctarinePegacorn



Category: The Modifyers
Genre: F/M, Reader-Insert, Vain's crush on Lacey isn't that important, this is not related to the Zone parody
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 17:33:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7723522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OctarinePegacorn/pseuds/OctarinePegacorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You finally get to meet <i>the</i> Lacey Shadows and learn why she’s Baron Vain’s favorite underling...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Won't Let Her Get Away

**Author's Note:**

> Even though _The Modifuckrs_ wasn't really my thing, I'm thankful for being introduced to the song "Peach Blossom" by Eels. That's where I got the title. I'll add a summary later.

“Aw man/Feels so nice/That was a long cold night/Then the sun came out/And thawed the ice” -“Peach Blossom” by Eels 

_Is that Rat?_

You almost stopped in your tracks as your oblivious teammate tripped in front of a mailbox. He speedily got up and peered into it before a punkish fist, fingerless glove and all, emerged from the slot and popped him right in the face. He went down again.

As soon as Rat recovered he growled and shot a grubby paw into the box, groping around for his attacker. This caught the attention of a bobby who approached him and used his nightstick to angrily tap the rodentine henchman’s helmet.  

Rat made a dash for it. Somehow you managed to suppress laughter as the policeman chased him up and down the street. Almost everyone in this city knew better than to mess with a member of His Wretchedness’s gang. You could only conclude that this particular officer was a newby. 

To an outsider, the passing citizens might look completely uninterested in this game of cop-and-mouse. Many plastered smiles onto their faces as they strolled by but you saw the sideways glances the window passengers on the departing triple-decker bus gave the pair. Bystanders were giving you a wide berth as well. 

You gazed rapt as the bobby nonchalantly stood in the middle of the road before throwing off their uniform to reveal a girl dressed in alternative apparel. Smiling all the while, she skedaddled into a phone booth as a beat up-looking Rat went after her. Sparkling viridescent flames shot out as the booth was leisurely launched into the air. Your associate pulled out a grappling hook and somehow managed to securely attach himself to the small rocket, folding his body away from the green fire. You transformed into a bat.

“Hey Rat,” you called as you flittered up to him, grinning. “Who’s the cute goth you’re following?”

He scowled and kicked you hard, forcing you to veer away from the rocket. As the booth rose into the clouds, you flashed him your fangs.

“We’re going to find out if bats eat rats!” you furiously called out. What happened to him next wasn’t your concern. You had a graveyard to get back to and guard. Although you were a bit concerned about the blue-haired girl he had a beef with, you saw firsthand that she knew how to take care of herself.  
***  
As you flew back to the cemetery, you pondered the identity of the black-clad babe. Most citizens avoided using that color as anything other than an accent, for fear of being mistaken for an underling of the Baron. Others wore black precisely for that reason, or to be rebellious. The attractive stranger certainly seemed brazen. 

It was also possible she was a co-worker. Vain had heaps of cronies, goons, and the like. Although it was strange that he’d hire someone as normal looking (in comparison to the rest of his gang) as that girl, you could guess that the Baron was won over by her rascally ways. 

_And maybe I could be, too…_ you thought. Maybe she was just some punk but that thought made you regret not staying behind even more. Although you were your superior’s “second favorite” (his words), he had been more pissed off than usual. Both the Ogre Clops and Crowdactyl had eaten dinner earlier but Kornyleous hadn’t. You might have job, meaning _life_ , security but many of the other underlings didn’t, even the ones directly under your command. You really hoped that someone snuck into the Museum of Really Odd Stuff and robbed that place of its much coveted All Seeing Eye for him soon.  
***  
After you arrived at the boneyard, you transformed back into your humanoid form and started your patrol through the mist. It wasn’t long before you spotted a pink-haired figure gently descending from the sky with an umbrella in hand. You hid behind a bunnyman-shaped tombstone. To your astonishment her rainshade transformed into what looked like, with its little antenna, a communication device with limbs. 

“He tricked us,” the device muttered. 

“Don’t worry, Mole, Lacey Shadows knows where to find him.” 

For a brief moment your heart jolted into your ribcage as you believed they were referring to you and your metamorphosis. As they sped off into another direction, you remembered you were a vampire and scoffed. There hadn’t been any stench of garlic or freshly sharpened wood, either. But her white outfit had resembled a Modifyer uniform and her long locks were two shades of pink...

Your eyes widened. _Agent Xero._ And she had mentioned Lacey Shadows, the Baron’s favored captain. Where they going to interrogate her? Now you were afraid again. 

Not only had you not been introduced to Miss Shadows, you’d never seen an image of her. Vain always mentioned her name fondly, like he was infatuated. His two least favorite things were country and sunlight so you had always imagined her as a deathly pale, sophisticated metropolitan type.

_Even if I knew what she looked like, I don’t know where she is._

The only thing you could do was warn the Baron. In order to avoid the hypercompetent agent you had heard so many stories about, you took a secret entrance into Vain’s lair that only you two (and perhaps Lacey as well) knew about.  
***  
Flying into the dungeon where the Baron housed his organ, you quickly ceased being a _Desmodus rotundus_ when you spotted him, Rat, and the blue-haired vixen from earlier. 

“Lacey Shadows, yay,” crooned the pallid malefactor, using his hands to quietly applaud her. “ _My favorite._ ”

Rat grabbed the backpack she was holding and attempted to rip it away from, cursing her under his breath. Lacey refused to let go, resulting in a short tug-of-war that he ended up winning. 

“She’s a double-crosser, I say,” announced Rat, pointing at the frowning Shadows while a flummoxed Vain looked on. “She’s one of them Modifyers in disguise. And I’ll proves it to ya with the All Seeing-!” He proudly reached into the bag and pulled out a concrete sphere from one of the gravestones. “Ah…”

“Piece of junk?” replied Vain, leaning down and smiling, pleased that he had an excuse to punish Rat for badmouthing Lacey. 

“That’s no piece of junk. _That_ ’s part of a headstone,” you explained, savoring the chance to get back at him for kicking you earlier. “That’s _vandalism_. Against _you_ , Your Malignancy.”

“Well, now it’s not so funny,” responded your fuming superior, slowly advancing on his sorely mistaken subordinate. 

“I’ll leave you three alone,” Lacey called out. “ _Au revoir!_ ”

Her farewell caught your attention, but not the Baron’s or Rat’s. (The former was chasing the latter with a net.) 

She took off, heading for the stone platform that would take her back up to the cemetery. You flew after her and narrowly avoided colliding with the unconventional lift as it went up. When you saw multicolored sparkles twinkle around her, you almost believed that you ended up hitting your head after all. As soon as your wings morphed back into arms, you rubbed your eyes.

Lacey stared down at you, her eyes wide and her lavender-painted lips pursed tightly together. Straightening up, you offered her what you hoped was a friendly-looking smile. Her lips gently parted before the corners of her mouth turned upwards. For a few moments, the smile didn’t reach her eyes but then Lacey gave you a once-over and her baby blues

 _...or teals..._   

grinned along with her mouth. 

“Hi, I’m [name].”

“Lacey Shadows,” she responded, sticking her hand out. After you two shook, her grip lasted a little longer than was necessary. When she let go, her fingertips gently grazed your knuckles. 

“The Baron’s talked a lot about you.”

She tilted her head and bit down on her lip, still smiling. “The Baron’s also talked about _you_ a lot, with respect. I guess you’re pretty good at surveillance, what with being a vamp and all?”

You might have been the vampire but she could have made a grade-A vamp, in your opinion. As you both drunk each other in, you wanted to know how she had come to work for your employer. At the same time, you also didn’t want to get too personal yet. For all you knew, she might have just been some bored girl who started off going to alt. clubs and then was slowly drawn into the underworld of the city.  

“Er, let’s step off of this ‘grave’. In case someone else needs to use it.”

Two thoughts occurred to you as both of you strolled over to another area, where you two wouldn’t be spotted if some (wannabe) active necrophiliac came wandering in. One, she might just be interested in your eyes which, as a vampire, you were concerned about. But no, she was attempting to give you the elevator look discreetly. And not spending a particularly long time on your mouth, so she probably wasn’t only interested in your hemophagia either.

You forgot what your second thought had been as your gaze took in her sunkissed skin and soft hair, which coordinated with her outfit. Wondering if this was her uniform, you managed to stop scrutinizing her fishnet and light purple tight-clad legs so you could ask. Before you got a chance to, you noticed that your new crush was worriedly surveying her fingers.

“Did you tear your glove?” you questioned.

“N-no, I just lost my ring. I really should head back down and look-”

“Don’t worry, Lacey, I’ll find it for you,” you promised as you headed back to the elevator.

“Make sure that you don’t answer the ring!” she blurted out. 

“Why would I answer a ring? Unless it came from a telephone?” you nervously joked. “It’s not like you had the All-Seeing Eye Rat mentioned earlier.”  
***  
There _was_ a ringing when you got down there. It came from a pink gem-shaped ring with a purple band. The condemned anthropomorphic rodent was holding it between two fingers and laughing wickedly. Something in your gut told you not to mention who it really belonged to.

“Can I have the toy ring back, please?”

Rat growled. “Oh no, you don’t! This belongs to that traitor Lacey Shado- I mean Agent Xer-!”

“If it belongs to Lacey Shadows, then _I_ will return it.” Vain declared. He faced you. “Is she still in the graveyard?” 

All you could do was nod as he nervously strode over to the “Never More” platform. You could imagine him gently sliding the noisy piece of “jewelry” onto Lacey’s ring digit. Your heart felt like dropping. 

“ _You_.” Turning around to face Rat, you sighed. “You’re in cahoots with Xero!”

Facing away from him again, you kicked the sentenced henchman back into Kornyleous. You actually heard a squeak followed by the squelch of the oversized fish closing his maw. To your surprise, when you turned around again the rodent was standing, fearfully frozen, in the bloody water. Kornyleous slowly but eagerly began to open his mouth again. 

“Don’t be daft. If Lacey Shadows really was Xero, then how does she hide all those rosy tresses, eh? Magic?”

Your voice jolted him and he barely avoided a one-way trip down the other henchman’s gullet. Rat scurried away instead of insulting you, which you thought was the smartest action you had ever seen him perform.  
***  
You hid behind a tombstone until the Baron was done conversing with her. To your immense relief, he was too in awe of her to flirt. Once he cluelessly glided past, you slowly approached Lacey Shadows. Unaware of your presence, she balled her left, bejeweled hand into a victorious fist. 

“Hey Lacey,” you mumbled. 

“Hi, _[name]_ ,” she replied, stopping. Her eyes were half-closed but she didn’t look tired at all. “It’s nice seeing you again so soon.” 

Lacey bit down on her lip again and you wished that she was doing that to yours instead. 

“You look like you’re busy so I was jus-”

“Oh, no, I’m sure I can clear my schedule for tonight.” An eyebrow was quirked at you. “That is, if _you’re_ not busy.”

The bone garden’s resident raven must be making weird noises again, because you could’ve sworn you heard it caw “...ero!”

Your eager smile probably made you look a bit ridiculous but you didn’t care. She _already liked you._

“My patrol lasts until dawn but if you want to hang out tomorrow night before midnight…”

“I’d love to.”

You were grateful for the way her retreating figure was illuminated by the moonlight. Her metallic backpack, which had a design that resembled two glaring purple eyes, glinted. There wasn’t much in the way of entertainment for a regular human girl in that cemetery. Though, to you, she seemed pretty extraordinary. Lacey wanted to be around you and that was all that really mattered to you right then.

**Author's Note:**

> See if you can spot the _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ reference. _The Modifyers_ © Lynne Naylor, Amy Wofram, and Chris Reccardi. "Peach Blossom" © E, Koool G Murder, and The Chet.


End file.
